Avrion Mitchison

Nicholas Avrion Mitchison (5 May 1928 – 28 December 2022) was a British zoologist and immunologist.

Life and career Mitchison was born in Hammersmith, London on 5 May 1928, the son of the Labour politician Dick Mitchison (Baron Mitchison of Carradale in the County of Argyll, who died 1970) and his wife, the writer Naomi (née Haldane). His uncle was the biologist J.B.S. Haldane and his grandfather the physiologist John Scott Haldane. a surprising result in the context of basic clonal selection theory, but which can be understood in the context of immune network theory. He was also a founder member of the British Society for Immunology alongside John H. Humphrey, Bob White, and Robin Coombs.

He was married to Lorna Margaret Martin, daughter of Maj-Gen John Simson Stuart Martin, CSI. They have five children, Tim, Matthew, Mary, Hannah and Ellen. He was also a foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences, USA. He held an Honorary Doctorate from the Weizmann Institute and in 1995 was awarded the Novartis Prize for Basic Immunology.

Avrion Mitchison Prize for Rheumatology In honor of its Founding Director, the Deutsches Rheuma-Forschungszentrum Berlin (DRFZ), a Leibniz Institute, annually awards the Avrion Mitchison Prize to young scientists contributing significantly to understanding and treating rheumatic diseases. Donated by the Ernst Schering Foundation until 2018, the prize is now awarded by the DRFZ. The prize money is 3,000 Euros.